Tips to Help Manage Time More Effectively - Part 3

Watch out for potential time-wasters : 

Lack of selfdiscipline, idling, daydreaming, procrastinating (putting off or postponing unpleasant or difficult tasks), focusing on trivia, aimless channel surfing or browsing the Net are some of the most notorious time wasters to avoid. They surreptitiously whittle away at time without you even realising it. 

Prioritise your interests : 

There are just that many hours in a day. Its better to concentrate on a few select interests and hone them to perfection instead of trying to dabble in a large number of activities that leave you exhausted and unsatisfied. 

Seek help : 

Despite all the planning and determination, you may, at times, find that you are unable to stick to your schedule. At such times, seek help from someone close to you. Discuss your goals and enlist their help in helping you stick to your schedule. 

Time management is a 'skill' and, an 'art' that we can develop through careful practice. And the sooner we start the better. 

Remember you have the same 24 hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Mother Teresa, Louis Pasteur, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci or Albert Einstein. It's how you use it that makes the difference. 

Concluded

Tips to Help Manage Time More Effectively - Part 2

The early bird gets the worm: 

An early start saves a lot of time. If possible, begin and complete your assignments and projects well in time to avoid undue tension. Don't wait till the very last moment to get cracking. Make ‘Defeat the Deadline’ your motto. 

Table your intent: 

Start by preparing a timetable. To draw up a schedule that will work for you, factor in your preferred style of study ie your ‘prime time’ (you will find that you function at your peak at a particular time, this is the best time to handle ‘tough’ tasks). Similarly, make a note of your average attention span. Only you know which learning method works best for you. Then, match your style with the course requirements. Each study period must cover one learning objective. Ideally, it should not exceed beyond 90 minutes. Although individual attention spans can vary somewhat, research on learning patterns shows that the speed and effectiveness of learning changes with time. After about 25 minutes, the attention curve begins to dip.Teachers are aware of this and attempt to restart the curve every 20 minutes or so by introducing a new activity like asking a question or cracking a joke to liven things up and change the pace. 

Create a learning environment: 

An environment conducive to learning is useful. If you think you can sit or curl up anywhere and learn, you may be wrong. The most comfortable environment does not necessarily promote learning. The best environment is one where you feel motivated, alert and reasonably comfortable to study. 

Jot it down: 

How often do we find ourselves mumbling, "If only I could remember…" The simple solution to this problem is to always carry a pencil and paper with you. The moment you get a unique idea or you hear something noteworthy — just scribble it down, and file it where it is easily accessible. This is an absolute time saver! 

To Be Continued ....

Tips to Help Manage Time More Effectively - Part 1

Here are tips to help you manage your time more effectively ( for students ) : 

Time is precious : 

Time is unidirectional. Once lost, it's gone forever. It is therefore essential to value it as a limited and fleeting resource. Wasted time is one thing that can't be recycled. 

Leverage your own time : 

Look at how you spend time in a typical day. What can you stop doing, or do less of? If you use your time carefully, you will have more of it for things that make a difference. 

Budget your time : 

Even more than money,we need to budget our time judiciously. The art lies in laying down priorities for work, fixing minimum and maximum time slots for different activities and managing within the 24-hour day. Never close a week without planning a schedule for the next one. Prepare a daily time schedule. But do factor in minor adjustments. M a i n t a i n i n g re g u l a r i t y pays dividends. 

Also, you can't possibly cut down on sleep, can you? A relaxed mind learns (and retains) far better and quicker than 

one under tension. Make sure you budget some time for relaxation and exercise in your schedule, how so ever busy. 

To Be Continued ... 

Great Ways to Find More Free Time - Part 5

17. Make use of your mornings. I find that mornings are the absolute best times to schedule the things I really want to do. I run, read and write in the mornings three of the four things on my Essentials List (spending time with family is the other thing on the list). Mornings are great because your day hasn't been filled with a bunch of unscheduled, demanding, last-minute tasks that will push back those Essentials. For example, if you schedule something for late afternoon, by the time late afternoon rolls around, you might have a dozen other things newly added to your to-do list, and you will put off that late-afternoon Essential. Instead, schedule it for the morning, and it will rarely (if ever) get pushed back.

18. The Golden Right-after-work Time. Other than mornings, I find the time just after work to be an incredible time for doing Essential things. Exercise, for example, is great in the 5-o'clock hour, as is spending time with family, or doing anything else relaxing.

19. Your evenings. The time before you go to bed is also golden, as it exists every single day, and it's usually completely yours to schedule. What do you want to do with this time? Read? Spend time with your kids? Work on a hobby you are passionate about? Take advantage of this time.

20. Lunch breaks. If the three golden times mentioned above don't work for you, lunch breaks are another good opportunity to schedule things. Some people like to exercise, or to take quiet times, during their lunch breaks. Others use this time to work on an important personal goal or project. 

Concluded

Great Ways to Find More Free Time - Part 4

13. Delegate. If you have subordinates or coworkers who can do a task or project, try to delegate it. Don't feel like you need to do everything yourself. If necessary, spend a little time training the person to whom you are delegating the task, but that little time spent training will pay off in a lot of time saved later. Delegating allows you to focus on the core tasks and projects you should be focusing on.

14. Cut out distractions. What is there around your workspace that distracts you from the task at hand? Sometimes it's visual clutter, or papers lying around that call for your attention and action, or email or IM notifiers on your computer that pop up at the wrong time, or the phone, or coworkers. See if you can eliminate as many of these as possible the more you can focus, the more effective you will be and the less time you will waste. That equals time saved for the good stuff.

15. Disconnect. The biggest of distractions, for most people, is the Internet. My most productive times are when I am disconnected from the grid. Now, I am not saying you need to be disconnected all the time, but if you really want to be able to effectively complete tasks, disconnect your Internet so you can really focus. Set certain times of the day for connectivity, and only connect during those periods.

16. Outsource. If you can't delegate, see if you can outsource. With the Internet, we can connect with people from all over the world. I have outsourced many things, from small tasks to checking email to legal work to design and editing work and more. That allows me to focus on the things I am best at, the things I love doing, and saves me a lot of time.

To Be Continued....

Great Ways to Find More Free Time - Part 3

9. Cut back on email. I mentioned email in an earlier point above, regarding consolidating, but it's such a major part of most people's lives that it deserves special attention. How often do you check email? How much time do you spend composing emails? If you spend a major part of your work day on email, as many people do (and as I once did), you can free up a lot of time by reducing the time you spend in email. Now, this won't work for everyone, but it can work for many people: choose 2-3 key times during the day to process your inbox to empty, and keep your responses to 5 sentences.

10. Learn to say "NO". If you say yes to every request, you will never have any free time. Get super protective about your time, and say no to everything but the essential requests.

11. Keep your list to 3. When you make out your daily to-do list, just list the three Most Important Tasks you want to accomplish today. Don't make a laundry list of tasks, or you will fill up all your free time. By keeping your task list small, but populated only by important tasks, you ensure that you are getting the important stuff done but not overloading yourself.

12. Do your Biggest Rock first. Of the three Most Important Tasks you choose for the day, pick the biggest one, or the one you are dreading most, and do that first. Otherwise you will put that off as much as possible and fill your day with less important things. Don't allow yourself to check email until that Big Rock is taken care of. It starts your day with a sense of major accomplishment, and leaves you with a lot of free time the rest of the day, because the most important thing is already done.

To Be Continued.....

Great Ways to Find More Free Time - Part 2

3. Find your time-wasters. What do you spend a lot of your time on that isn't on your essential list? Take a close look at these things and really think about whether they are necessary, or if there are ways to reduce, minimize or eliminate these things. Sometimes you do things because you assume they are necessary, but if you give it some thought you can find ways to drop them from your life. Figure out what you do simply to waste time, maybe surfing certain sites, watching TV, talking a lot at the water cooler, etc. You are going to want to minimize these time-wasters to make room for the more important stuff, the stuff that makes you happy and that you love to do.

4. Schedule the time. As you sit down and think about your life and what you want to do, versus what you actually do, you will be looking at ways to free up time. It's crucial that you take a blank weekly schedule (you can just write it out on a piece of paper, or use your calendar) and assign blocks for the things you love the stuff on your essentials list. If you want to exercise, for example, when will you do it? Put the blocks of time on your schedule, and make these blocks the most important appointments of your week. Schedule the rest of your life around these blocks.

5. Consolidate. There are many things you do, scattered throughout your day or your week, that you might be able to consolidate in order to save time. A good example is errands  instead of running one or two a day, do them all in one day to save time and gas. Another example is email, or any kind of communication batch process your email instead of checking and reading and responding throughout the day. Same thing with meetings, paperwork, anything that you do regularly.

6. Cut out meetings. This isn't possible for everyone, but in my experience meetings take up a lot of time to get across a little information, or to make easy decisions that could be made via email or phone. As much as you can, minimize the number of meetings you hold and attend. In some cases this might mean talking to your boss and telling her that you have other priorities, and asking to be excused. In other cases this might mean asking the people holding the meeting if you can get the info in other ways. If so, you have saved yourself an hour or so per meeting (sometimes more).

7. De clutter your schedule. If you have a heavily packed schedule, full of meetings and errands and tasks and projects and appointments, you are going to want to weed it out so that it's not so jam-packed. Find the stuff that's not so essential and cancel them. Postpone other stuff. Leave big blank spaces in your schedule.

8. Re-think your routine. Often we get stuck in a routine that's anything but what we really want our days to be like. Is there a better way of doing things? You are the creator of your life, make a new routine that's more pleasant, more optimal, more filled with things you love.

To Be Continued....

Great Ways to Find More Free Time - Part 1

The real problem of leisure time is how to keep others from using yours. - Arthur Lacey

Are there a hundred different things you wish you could do with your life someday”  anything from exercising to meditation or yoga to writing that novel you always wished you could write to reading more to relaxing and watching the sunrise? But perhaps you never have the time, like most people.

The truth is, we all have the same amount of time, and it's finite and in great demand. But some of us have made the time for doing the things we love doing, and others have allowed the constant demands and pressures and responsibilities of life to dictate their days.

It's time to move from the second group back into the first. Reclaim your time. Create the life you want and make the most of the free time you lay claim to. It's not hard, though it does take a little bit of effort and diligence.

Not all of these will be applicable to your life” choose the ones you can apply and give them a try:

1. Take a time out. Freeing up your time starts with taking a step back to take a good look at your life. You need to block off at least an hour. Several hours or half a day is better. A whole day would be awesome. A weekend would be even more ideal, though not necessary practical for many folks. With this block of time, take a look at your life with some perspective. Is it what you have always wanted? How would you get to 

where you have always wanted to be? What do you enjoy doing, but don't have enough time to do? What things actually fill up your day? Are there things you could drop or minimize to make more time? We will look at some of these things in the following items, but it starts with taking a time out to think and plan.

2. Find your essentials. What is it that you love to do? Make a short list of 4-5 things. These are the things you want to make room for.

To Be Continued .......